Temple land worth Rs 250 crore saved from land mafia in Jabalpur

Bhopal: The district administration in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur has saved land worth Rs 250 crore belonging to a local temple from the clutches of land mafia, an official said.The district administration has now declared the land as non-transferrable and decided to take over the management of Mahadev Mandir Trust following complaints of land bungling, said […]

Bhopal: The district administration in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur has saved land worth Rs 250 crore belonging to a local temple from the clutches of land mafia, an official said.
The district administration has now declared the land as non-transferrable and decided to take over the management of Mahadev Mandir Trust following complaints of land bungling, said Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Namah Shivay Arjaria in an official statement on Friday.

The trust owned 23 acres of land, including 16 acres in Bandhaiya Mohalla and seven acres in Nimora village. Of this, the market value of the 16-acre land in Bandhaiya Mohalla is around Rs 250 crore, he said.

---

After receiving a complaint of land bungling of the trust, which was established in 1958, district collector Karmveer Sharma had ordered an inquiry.

During the inquiry, it was found that the trust management was careless in managing its properties, Arjaria said.

As part of the alleged bungling of the temple’s valuable land, Rs 92 lakh were received from one Hamid Hassan, a resident of South Miloniganj on different dates in year 2019 in the bank account of the trust, he said.

Arjaria said this transaction was illegal as prior permission of the authority concerned was needed in case of transaction of more than Rs 5,000 as per the Public Trust Act. Some other instances of bungling included the names of the trustees were not changed in the government records despite the death of some of them, he said.

“After the inquiry found that the allegations of bungling were right, a committee headed by tehsildar Rajesh Singh was formed for running the management of Mahadev Mandir Trust. A letter is also being written to the Income Tax about the receipt of Rs 92 lakh into the trust ‘s bank account from Hamid Hussain,” he said.